When I heard the news that Kobe died today, I was on a run. I thought "wow - that's crazy" but it didn't actually hit me. I thought about my friends who are Lakers fans and how much this will impact them.

But when I got home and started reading Twitter and watching the news, I remembered how much Kobe impacted me. In high school and early college I was a big Lakers fan, but when they started sucking, I pretty much stopped watching basketball.

But today I cried more than I've cried in a really long time. The more I browsed Twitter and watched his old videos, quotables, and the remembered the man that he was, the more I cried.

To be honest, I don't really understand why this is affecting me so much.

But Kobe was a part of my childhood, someone I looked up to. When you're young, you don't notice all of the amazing things about the man - it's more about the game and the athlete that he was.

But as I got older, and so did he, you started to see that Kobe was just different. Even when his body got older, he had this insane drive to win and be the best. He never, ever gave anything less than his all.

But I'm not a huge basketball fan, and what has impacted me so much has little to do with basketball.

Kobe was the kind of guy that got what he wanted out of life. He found the thing that he was so passionate about (basketball) and he did everything in his human ability to achieve greatness at the highest level.

"The mamba mentality" - Kobe's slogan and inspirational idea - "means to be able to constantly try to be the best version of yourself". "It's a constant quest to try to better today than you were yesterday."

Kobe always saw the opportunity in his own flaws. Instead of being self-concious about something in life, and in his game, he used that as fuel to learn more, to work harder, and to overcome.

And once basketball came to an end for him, he knew it was over. He gave it his all, his everything. And that was OK, because he could look back and never regret anything. He knew that he gave it everything he could.

That is something that really hits home for me. It inspires me to work harder and live a life full of passion and following my dreams. It is what I'm trying to do right now.

It also gives me motivation to build a family. Kobe was all about family. I think family and work and your impact are the most important things in this world.

And Kobe only cared about impact. He did not care about money. I have no way to back this, but when you look at his face during a game, you can just tell that this man only cares about winning.

He didn't care how others percieved him. He was a competitor and fierce on the court. He did what was right. He said what we thought. And everyone respected him for that.

He talked big and had the skills and work ethic to back it up.

After he left the league he won an Oscar, and wrote a book, he was building something even bigger than basketball.

In today's world, I think we get shit on for wanting to follow our dreams. Whether you're making music, an aspiring comedian, an athlete, etc most people will talk shit behind your back. Whether you're famous or not, the haters and jealous people try to bring people down like crabs in a bucket.

Kobe preached for people to follow their dreams, the mamba mentality, to WORK HARD and make no excuses for yourself. To become a better person every day. To push yourself to new limits. To do it for YOU.

It is this mentality that makes people like Kobe stand out from the rest of the world. I wish more people in this world were like Kobe.

All of this happening has inspired me to work harder and has only given me more confidence that I must follow my dreams and make an impact on the world.

Kobe was only 41. I'm almost 30. I haven't done 5% of the things I wanna do in the world. But I need to stop giving a fuck about what I've done and focus on what I can do today, and tomorrow. We can only move forward.